Page 119 - آثار مصر الفرعونية الجزء الأول

complete. It required a large descending tunnel to be built in the
west part of the upper antechamber, from which visitors today
may actually view the top of the vaulted burial chamber.

It is very possible that both the granite burial chamber and
the set of niches were built after the after the death of Menkaure
on the instructions of his son and successor, Shepseskaf.

On the burial chamber's west wall, Vyse discovered a
wonderful, dark basalt sarcophagus that was decorated with
niches in the palace facade style. The sarcophagus was empty,
and its lid was missing. However, fragments of the lid were
discovered, which indicate that it was ornamented with a concave
cornice. Ricke saw in this design certain similarities with the
decorations in shrines dedicated to the god Anubis, and thought
that they were an attempt to provide additional protection for the
tomb by means of that divinity. Alas, we are left with only
drawing of this piece of funerary equipment, for the ship,
Beatrice, which was taking it from Egypt to the British Museum
leaving Leghorn sank somewhere between Malta and Spain in
1838. Fortunately, the anthropoid coffin was sent in a separate
ship that reached its destination.

Interestingly, in contrast to Khufu's and Khafre's pyramids,
there have been no boat pits discovered in relationship to
Menkaure's pyramid, despite intensive investigation by an
Egyptian archaeologist named Abdel Aziz Saleh, who obviously

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